How to alleviate boredom

Current mood: In the mood for fun
Current music: Lemon Jelly - 'Ramblin' Man' (oh, the joys of travelling!)

*POP*

During a lull this afternoon at work, there was a delivery of some equipment that was packed in bubble-wrap. Not being particularly busy at that point, a couple of us started popping the bubbles, which were probably Super-Duper Sized because each bubble was nearly 3 cm in diameter, which doesn't sound like much until you measure it. They made very satisfactory popping sounds and it was a fun kind of thing to do in the usually sensible workplace...

*POP*

...But not as fun as skimming stones (which, unfortunately, I can't do at work). If you've ever seen the brilliant French film, 'Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain', you'll know that the character Joseph likes nothing but popping bubble-wrap (and possibly, stalking his ex-girlfriends), but the heroine Amélie prefers skimming stones whenever she can. I never used to be able to do this, until a wonderful friend of mine showed me how when I visited him in La Rochelle, and now I can manage to get two skips before the stone plunges into the water.

*Flick*... *Whoosh*... *Skip*... *Skip*... *Sploosh!*

One day I'll be able to get five skips, like my friend does. It all comes down to practice.

So the other day, when I went to the beach with my visiting London friends, practising my skimming technique was high on the list (or should I say, "J'ai pratiqué à faire le ricochet!"). The trick is in finding the right kind of pebble - not too big and heavy, and also fairly flat. The other trick is in *flicking* your wrist and aiming the stone at a low angle. Anyway, I was afraid I'd be out of practice, but I haven't lost the touch! I'm so pleased!

*Flick*... *Whoosh*... *Skip*... *Skip*... *Sploosh!*

The other thing I did on the glorious sunshiny beach was to sculpt myself a sand-turtle. A sand castle would have been too difficult to do on my own without a sand bucket, sand spade, sand cement-mixer, sand pneumatic drill and sand crane, but a turtle was easy. All you need is a mound of sand for the shell... then a smaller mound next to it, for the head... then some flattish, pointier mounds for the flippers... then a little bit more for the tail. Voilà. Turtle. I made my turtle head towards the water, accompanied by a little sign saying 'Save the Turtles'.

My friends thought that the ephemeral sand-turtle should have a name, and all sorts of silly suggestions cropped up (including names of various potatoes - no, I don't know why either). I came up with the name 'Penguin the Turtle', which would be interestingly confusing, though the turtle might face a certain amount of existential angst ("Should I swim north for the winter? Should I be black and white? Have I got too many flippers?"). This means that sometime in the future I shall have to sculpt a sand-penguin and call it 'Turtle the Penguin'.

What with all that stone-skimming and turtle-sculpting and having a good laugh with my friends, I had a thoroughly fantastic day. I hope it's one of those Golden Moments I can happily store and playback on my mental hard drive, forever and ever and ever. Like my trip to France, where I strolled along the beaches of La Rochelle and cruised the Seine in Paris. Bliss.

I had a Moment recently, though only time will tell if it's Golden or merely Silver. On my way to work I saw, not too far away, a large bird of prey - probably a black kite - soaring on the air currents of a thermal. Round and round it went, swooping back to the rising column of air again and again, always gaining more height, spreading its wings wide in the sheer joy of effortless flight. It would be so much fun to be able to fly like that. I just stopped and stared at the kite until it eventually flew out of sight. Absolute magic. It's such a shame that life has no soundtrack - the melody that played in my head, from the musical 'The Woman in White', was:

"Can you get a dizzy thrill, while the earth is standing still?"

You can if you fly.